Nymphs in the garden of the Hesperides picking the golden apples

Somewhat like a carved bas relief, this engraving depicts a scene from the story of Perseus by the prominent Rome-based printmaker Cherubino Alberti (1552-1615), after drawings by Polidoro da Caravaggio (1499-c. 1543). The helmeted hero is bringing Atlas the head of the slain Medusa. It is the right half of the engraving mounted next to it in the so-called King George IV album of Old Master prints, Perseus changing Atlas into a mountain with the head of Medusa (1910-0001-47-80), acquired by the Dominion Museum in 1910.

Polidoro was a pupil of Raphael, and is not to be confused with the better known and later Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art           March 2017